Back in December 2011, I had to travel to the UK on business. I took the opportunity to route my flight through Amsterdam instead of London and I had to pleasure of spending an afternoon in this great European city. I’m finally getting around to posting some of the photos I took during my short stay. I definitely need to go back and spend more time in this city, it was a lot of fun. Most of the photos here were shot while on a photo tour with Photo Tours of Amsterdam. I booked this tour after reading positive reviews on Trip Advisor. Things didn’t start well as my flight was delayed. Rather than arriving at 8:00am which...

Another set of dogs from Vancouver Animal Control, you can see others here. As always, you can see the animals available for adoption from this shelter by visiting their PetFinder page or just drop in at the shelter. The little husky puppies are still there, and still cute. The first dog today was Root Beer, a very active but loving young pit bull. At one point go got a case of the zoomies. This girl likes to lean on you while getting some attention, I don’t think she knows how big she is. Coming in for my close up. A young shih tzu, very playful. This guy looks grumpy, is missing a...

Another set of dogs from Vancouver Animal Control, you can see others here. As always, you can see the animals available for adoption from this shelter by visiting their PetFinder page or just drop in at the shelter. My favorite dog of the day, this hyper little puppy Spotz. He can’t sit still for more than two seconds, so it’s amazing I got any decent photos of him at all. This one seems a bit sad, like he is waiting for someone to come and adopt him. Coming in for my closeup :) Monty, he likes to give hugs. Give me a hug. Finally, the two little husky puppies. One has freckles on her nose. ...

I have been waiting for an update to the Nikon D700 for the better part of a year. During that time, I have sold some DX lenses and bought FX lenses in preparation. The delays were many and I almost picked up a D700 on several occasions and even looked around for a used D3s. I wasn’t in a hurry and still happy with the images my trusty D90 was producing. In the end, the wait was worth it as the D800 looks like a fantastic camera. I think the official specification surprised a lot of people. 36 megapixels, the fancy autofocus and metering from the D4, top notch video, and two models to choose from. I did a rundown of the...

The Nikon D800 and sister model the D800E were announced to much fanfare. It looks like a winner but like all gadgets it is not perfect. One of the first thing people ask is if it’s as good as the D700 when shooting at high ISO. The rule of thumb is that as pixel density increases, and thus physical pixel size decreases, the noise in an image will increase. There is more to this, but as a general rule that holds true. The 12mp sensors in the D700, D3, and D3s have shown that shooting in available light at high ISO values is possible and can produce stunning results. Here are the pixel sizes for several of Nikon’s cameras:...

The D800 and D800E are now official and all the rumor and speculation about specs can end. There seems to be new debate about whether 36MP is too many, if the E model (without the optical low-pass, anti-alias filter) makes any sense, and if the D4 is worth the money now that this camera is out. In short: no, yes, and yes. I may elaborate later but for now that is sufficient. If anyone cares, I think the D800 is going to be an excellent camera and I have already put a deposit on mine. I wouldn’t be buying something I don’ t think is a good buy. The D800 isn’t perfect, but it certainly is an upgrade over my current D90 and...

UPDATE Feb 14, 2012: I’m no longer getting the D800E but the regular D800. I have outlined the reasons for doing so in a different post. I’m sure both models will produce great images, if you have any thoughts about one model or the other feel free to leave a message in the comments. I have been waiting impatiently for a new, affordable, full-frame camera from Nikon for over a year. I have been shooting with a Nikon D90 and it’s a capable camera but I knew I wanted to make the jump to FX. Over the last few years, my lens selections have definitely been with a future FX body in mind. I could have bought the D700, which...

I took another trip to the Vancouver Animal Control shelter today to take photos of their dogs available for adoption. Photos from my previous visit can be seen here. As always, you can see the animals available for adoption from this shelter by visiting their PetFinder page or just drop in at the shelter. I don’t think this black lab will be there long. Cute little Boston Terrier, he jumps around like a maniac. My favorite dog of the day, a blue heeler. He kept trying to climb into my lap. Hound dog. They don’t always want to cooperate. The fuzzy Rottweiler. Funny dome head,...

I visit the Vancouver Aquarium several times a year and always enjoy it. They recently expanded and also have bioluminescence displays which were great to see. A friend of mine stole (ok, borrowed) my favorite lens for my visits to the aquarium, the Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Micro VR, so these are all shot with the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8. Since everything is hand held, the VR is actually quite useful. One of my favorite tanks showing the Pacific Sea Nettle. I feel very relaxed after watching it for a while. A shrimp in the west coast exhibit. It was divers weekend (discount if you bring your cert card). Lots of interesting info for divers....

A friend of mine just purchased a new Gitzo tripod and was eager to try it out. We decided to head down to the Olympic Village in Vancouver to get some shots at night. Below are some of the shots that turned out ok, all shot with a Nikon D90, 3 exposure HDR at +/- 2 EV. Processed with Lightroom, Photomatix, and Photoshop. This is the first time I have attempted an HDR panorama. This is a panorama stitched from four HDR images. I don’t think it turned out that well, but I learned a few things and will try something different next time. I think some of the other images from the nights shoot turned out better. Shot with a Nikkor 24-70mm...

I wrote a short post previously on how the D4 stacks up against it’s closest competition (Nikon D3s and Canon 1D X). It covers at the features photographers will look at most often when comparing bodies, things like sensor resolution, frame rates, buffer size, and low light performance. In this artile, I’ll go over some of the new things Nikon threw in there that make the body interesting. Video capability The D4 can record 1080p Full HD video at 30/25 or 24p in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format. Full HD video is available in three formats: FX-based, DX-based (1.5x) or 1,920 x 1,080 (2.7x) crop movie format. It can also export its...

Mircea Bezergheanu has been posting some sample images from the Nikon D4. These are the first images I have seen that are not from Nikon or part of the Nikon advertising campaign. I’m not sure what type of post processing is involved, however the images do look great even up to ISO 12,800. I think some post processing would make them look even better. Until we get side by side comparisons of the D4 and the D3S, shooting the same subject in the same light, it will be tough to compare the two bodies directly. Right now though, the D4 is certainly looking good. View the images on Mircea’s Smugmug...

Now that the Nikon D4 is official, we can compare specifications with its closest competitors. To me, the two closest competitors are the Nikon D3S and the soon to be available Canon 1D-X. I’ll throw in the Nikon D3X, Canon 1D Mark IV and Canon 1Ds Mark III as they are all pro bodies with similar capability. I don’t consider the Nikon D700 or Canon 5D Mark II direct competitors to the D4 so I’ll exclude them here. They can certainly be considered competitors for some applications and are themselves excellent cameras but they primarily target a different market. I’ll also exclude the Sony Alpha A900, it’s a...

Nikon did not have a good year in 2011 as they were affected by two major disasters. The earthquake in Japan and following tsunami forced the shutdown of their plant in Sendai. This plant produces their professional line of cameras and lenses. Later in the year, the flooding in Thailand submerged the Nikon factory at the Rojana Industrial Park. This plant produces many of their consumer cameras and lenses. Because of these disasters, their entire product line-up was affected and shortages of equipment were common. Nikon planned to introduce a few new camera models and lenses in 2011 but all announcements were postponed while they...

The rumours were flying around for months and the mill was in high gear for the last few weeks about Nikon’s new flagship camera, the D4. Official announcement is likely to come on Friday, Jan. 6th (late Thursday in Canada/USA) but a French magazine spilled the beans early. A scan of the article can be seen here. Looks like a great body, and should compete well against the new Canon 1DX. Specs: 16 megapixels ISO 100-12800 (expandable to 50-204800) 51 autofocus points 100% viewfinder coverage 10-12fps 91000 point metering system 1080p video recording CF/XQD card slots 1.34kg weight €5,800 (likely to be about $6,000 USD) Full details...